FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT RACE WAR - PAGE 4

As World War I drew to a close in late 1918, the noted black author and activist James Weldon Johnson posed the issue that was on the minds of many African-Americans: Would their support for the war effort, on the battlefields of Europe and in the factories of the United States, translate into improvements in the "status of the Negro as an American citizen?" At that historical moment, blacks' status could be described as second-class — or worse. Their bill of complaints was painfully long: They were denied the vote in the South, trapped in a system of sharecropping that precluded economic mobility, excluded from countless workplaces, denigrated as biologically and culturally inferior, subject to harassment and violence, and relegated to segregated facilities that were palpably inferior to those of their white counterparts.

In pondering Howard Reich's article on the race war in jazz (Oct. 30, The Arts), it occurred to me that the Board of Directors of Moline's Louie Bellson Jazz Fest is made up of people whose ancestry can be traced to Austria, Ireland, Mexico, Sweden and Africa. Notwithstanding what's going on in New York, the Quad Cities are truly a melting pot of jazz, and we're proud of it.

The Pentagon is beefing up its public-relations staff and starting an operation akin to a political campaign's war room. In a memo obtained by The Associated Press, Dorrance Smith, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, said new teams of people will "develop messages" for the 24-hour news cycle and "correct the record." The memo describes an operation modeled after a political campaign--such as that made famous by Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential race war room--calling for a "Rapid Response" section that quickly answers opponents' assertions.

The race to war in Iraq will not solve the problems we face in the Middle East and will only hurt our national security. Thousands of innocent lives will also be lost if this war begins. We all have a responsibility to speak out in favor of a peaceful solution to this crisis.

I`m as horrified as anyone else by the atrocities committed by Iraqi soldiers in Kuwait, but I think the less we say about that the better. Don`t forget, we are the ones who dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Remember My Lai also, before saying that Iraqis do not belong to the human race. War dehumanizes the participants on both sides. One of the ugliest TV pictures of this war was that of young U.S. airmen returning from a bombing raid, exhilarated, thrilled, with expressions of unrestrained joy on their faces.

By Patti Adachi, President, Chicago Chapter, Japanese American Citizens League | August 26, 1989

Stephen Chapman's column "Japan-bashers try to turn trade war into a race war" in a recent Tribune is a welcome piece of rational and fair journalism. Most newspapers give us the impression that the only trade deficit we have is with Japan, and that we are in danger of being taken over by Japanese companies. Mr. Chapman points out that the U.S. trade deficit with Canada is, per capita, as large as the trade deficit with Japan, and that the British and Dutch own more property in the U.S. and have bought more American companies than have the Japanese.

On July 15, 1606, painter Rembrandt van Rijn was born in Leiden, Netherlands. In 1870 Georgia became the last of the Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union. In 1916 Pacific Aero Products, which would evolve into the Boeing Co., was founded in Seattle. In 1933 24 seaplanes, led by Italian Air Minister Italo Balbo, landed on Lake Michigan near Chicago's Navy Pier for the Century of Progress exposition. In 1948 President Harry Truman was nominated for a full term at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

On July 15, 1099, the First Crusade ended with the capture of Jerusalem and the crowning of Godfrey of Bouillon as king. In 1870 Georgia became the last of the Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union. In 1912 Jim Thorpe led the U.S. team as it won the most medals at the Olympic Games in Stockholm. In 1916 Pacific Aero Products, which would become Boeing Co., was founded in Seattle. In 1946 singer Linda Ronstadt was born in Tucson, Ariz. In 1965 American scientists displayed close-up photographs of the planet Mars taken by the spacecraft Mariner 4. In 1974 Cypriot troops led by Greek army officers overthrew the government of Cyprus.

By Brendan O'Brien OAK CREEK, Wis., Aug 12 (Reuters) - Hundreds of people gathered on Sunday at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin for the first public service there since a white supremacist gunned down six people at the temple exactly a week earlier. They prepared and ate a traditional meal and raised the Nashan Sahib, the Sikh flag, before the prayer service on the same grounds where Wade Michael Page, 40, went on a shooting rampage last Sunday and then killed himself.